Laswitan’s visual poetry

THE FALLS of Laswitan. CATHE DUERO/CONTRIBUTOR

CORTES, Surigao del Sur–When the waves stop in fury as they hit the rocks, that’s when the magic of Laswitan begins.

Everything is the handiwork of wave behavior, a detailed choreography only nature can orchestrate: A ground swell and increasing wind speed create a wave and, as it nears the shore, the crest rushes ahead of the base and begins to lean forward. The wave eventually topples over and hammers solid rocks, penetrating their crevices and creating an exquisite water curtain and an exploding wall of foam.

But like most visions of absolute beauty, this rare facet of Laswitan is evanescent.

Laswitan is in Barangay Madrilenio, some 37 kilometers from Tandag City, the provincial capital. It comes from the Visayan word “laswit,” meaning to cause something (either liquid or a viscous substance) to spurt or spit out. Laswitan is a place where things squirt.

Facing the Pacific Ocean, Laswitan is an intertidal zone that offers a complex environment for tourists: solid rocks, stony cliffs, platforms, boulder fields and tidal pools. The natural jacuzzis come in different shapes, hues and depths.

Clean, clear and calming, these are never stagnant, as the tide regularly fills them with new seawater. And the way these pools are designed makes one think that maybe, the fairies asked the gods to put up a rock wall wide and tall enough to shield them, as they go prancing about or bathing, from the tyranny of a rogue wave and the ogling eyes of mermen.

Imagine yourself swimming in a tidal pool in one of the splash areas. You hear a thunderous clap and then sea sprays form a canopy above you. You close your eyes in reflex but in half a second, you open them. And there, right before you, the rock walls are totally transformed into a waterfall so grand, you’re blown away. You look around and all of Laswitan has turned into a theater with ornately flowing draperies in blinding white.

Amazing magic or plain earth science? Actually, it’s more like the earth spinning its own magic.

One ventures a guess that perhaps, these rocks used to be well-jointed. But due to alternate contraction and expansion, the joints or cracks present in them widened. Exposed to erosion agents, such as rainwater, these joints further expanded. And with stress building up within these rocks, they split along the joints, creating tiny orifices from which saltwater squirts. From this phenomenon called block disintegration, nature has composed, for Laswitan, visual poetry.

Laswitan is subject to seasonal changes. And locals say it’s best to visit during monsoon season (from November to January) when winter swells are on and the waves surge in five-minute intervals, no matter if it’s high or low tide.

But deciding not to visit Laswitan during the off-season is like not eating the cake because it lacks icing. More than the laswit, this natural marvel in the central part of Surigao del Sur province is also about setting.

From the moment a tourist arrives on a cliff overlooking Laswitan, he begins to wonder whose creative hand had picked up these huge boulders, set them down inland on a rugged, windswept landscape and in a pattern both random and deliberate.

From a panoramic perspective, the outline of the rocks baffles. Godzilla in repose? Giant toads hit by lightning in mid-croak? Or a band of alligators having their backs tanned to Hermes’ specification?

In scaling these black and gray boulders, one need not be steely nerved. All he needs is extra lung power. And although the colossal rocks provide small landings and a naturally carved staircase that escalates to the top, it’s still quite a demanding but enjoyable adventure playground for adults and kids.

Armed with only their physical strength and skill, tourists can climb up, down or across natural rock formations to reach the summit. The craggy terrain can be an arena for a relatively intense and safe bouldering competition where participants use only hands to support their weight as well as to provide balance.

“Every breaking wave on the shore tells the next one there’ll be one more,” Bono sings. In Laswitan, there’ll be much, much more to behold.

(Laswitan is accessible via Tandag City or Surigao City. From there, one can take a bus to Cortes junction, where “habal-habal,” or motorcycles with outrigger, will take him to Laswitan on an unpaved road starting from Cortes proper. While the rocks are not that jagged, it’s best to wear climbing shoes. There’s a cottage available and a lifeguard on duty. An entrance fee of P20 is charged per tourist.)